


Choices

by emilyevanston



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action, Angst, Character Death, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, Super powered reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 03:43:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15621792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilyevanston/pseuds/emilyevanston
Summary: When the Earth is under threat the team faces a choice that no one wants to make.





	Choices

You had never meant to fall in love with Tony Stark.  You had definitely never meant to cause him pain.  The level he feels right now was excruciating and while you hold him and stroke his hair whispering that it will be alright, everything will be fine, while Clint, Steve, and Natasha refuse to make eye contact with either of you, you wonder if there is any choice you made that could have ended differently.  Where you got to have a life where you both got to lead it and be happy.

It had started so long ago.  You were a small child, no more than six and it had called to you.  Not that you remembered until recently.  Not that you could have resisted then anyway.  It was stronger than you and it wanted an owner.  No one questioned the ring when you brought it home.  You started sleeping with it under your pillow.  Somehow, unless you looked directly at it, you never remembered that it existed.

Your powers had started manifesting a few years later.  Very small and imperceptible at first.  Plants in your house never withered or died despite your parents sometimes forgetting to water them.  People found themselves feeling just generally happier to be around you.  As time went on they grew.  People who were having trouble conceiving found themselves pregnant within a few weeks of coming in contact with you.  Flowers turned toward you like you were the sun.

By the time Tony Stark stood in front of the press and announced he was Iron Man you could heal any affliction.  It took a lot of energy so curing word disease was not ever an option.  On the occasions you’d cured terminal cases they’d almost taken you in their place and it had taken weeks to recover.  You did what you could while attempting to keep your anonymity.  You wore the ring on a chain around your neck.  No one ever asked about it.  If they had it would have surprised you that it was even there.

By the time you came and stood in the lobby of the Avengers compound telling them you needed to speak to one of the Avengers, you could create new life from a few cells.  Nothing big, but a leaf could be turned into a butterfly and while you felt tired after you did it, it didn’t need a long recovery time.

It had been Tony that had come to see what you wanted.  He was dismissive, expecting that you were yet another crank coming to be an Avenger when they had no particular skills.  When you brought one of the plants on the lobby back from the brink of death, he showed you to a room.

You took to the Avengers quite naturally.  They took to you too.  That was to be expected.  Most people did.  It was in your power set.  Soon you were one of the team.  You trained with them.  You went on missions.  Your powers grew.  They gave you the call sign Gaia.

Maybe if you’d stayed away from the Avengers they wouldn’t be feeling this kind of pain right now.  Maybe Tony’s heart wouldn’t be so broken.

The relationship with Tony had been unexpected.  He sought you out a lot.  All the Avengers did to some extent.  They were all broken in their own ways, and being in your presence made them feel a little more whole.  Tony was different though.  It wasn’t just that.  He connected to the part of you that wasn’t the powers.  You enjoyed his snark.  He made you happy in a way no one had.  He felt safe to be vulnerable with you.

The day you had healed him, repairing the weakening of his heart muscles and the ventricles and aorta from the shrapnel and subsequent poisoning he received from the arc reactor housed in his chest, and the nerve damage in his left arm, the look of pure bliss on his face was sublime.  The day he leaned in to kiss you and you had bridged the gap, your lips touching together and caressing, the feeling you had mirrored how he looked when you’d healed him.

Maybe if you hadn’t returned the kiss he’d be able to see that this was the only way.

Yesterday had started like any other.  You woke octopused around him with his face buried in your neck.  You’d let him sleep until he woke on his own.  He’d drunk coffee and a smoothie while you had pancakes.  Then the world had started to fall apart.

The attack had come from space.  You, Clint, Tony, Steve, and Natasha had stayed on Earth, helping to protect it from the ground.  There were others around who did the same.  Well known heroes, such as the Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Ant-Man.  Lesser known ones such as the hero of Harlem and the Devil of Hell’s kitchen.

The rest had gone to space to fight it directly.  Only the fight was useless.  They were winning. People were falling.  They weren’t here to conquer they were here to destroy.

You took the ring from around your neck and you slipped it on your finger.

You’re not even sure why you do it.  You aren’t even aware you are until it’s on your finger and you feel the crushing weight of another, pressing down on you and forcing you out of your own body.  You latch on, trying to keep control but it’s too powerful.  No, she’s too powerful.  You know it is a she just like you know your own gender.  

The air crackles around you and your eyes glow purple.  She draws in the very atoms changing the catsuit you’re wearing into flowing robes.  The others all stop and turn to look at you.

“That is very impressive, dear.  But now is not a time for a costume change.”  Tony says hovering in front of your form in the Iron Man suit.

“What the hell was that?”  Natasha asks, looking you over.  “You’ve never done anything like that before.”

“I am sorry, friends and lover of the one you call Gaia.”  The being answers, using your voice.  “I do not mean to alarm you, and I never meant for this to happen, but your planet and your friends are in peril.  If I do not step in, this is the end for all of you.”

The faceplate on the Iron Man suit opens and Tony looks at you with his head cocked to the side.  “Okay, honey.  That’s a very funny joke, but the timing is terrible.”

“Please forgive me.  She is still here.”  She pauses for a second as you grapple for control.  “Darling, I know.  I know it’s scary.  I never meant for this to be the way it is.”  She says out loud but you know she is addressing you.

“Who are you?”  Steve asks.

The being lands gently in front of Steve.  “I am ancient.  There are no words in your lexicon for me.  Goddess perhaps?  But that is not quite right.  Mother?  I’m not sure.  Just know I am not here to hurt you.”

“What have you done with our friend?”  Steve asks.

“She is still here.  Holding on.  She fights.  She always had such spirit.  That’s why I chose her.”  She answers.

“Let her go,”  Tony growls, raising his repulsor and aiming it at your body.  You grapple again and it feels like a physical weight is pushing down on the very essence of who you are.

She laughs.  “Oh, my sweet man.  I know you love her.  It’s why she fights.  But you can’t win against me, and I don’t wish you harm anyway.  I do this out of necessity.”

“Why don’t you tell us what you want?”  Steve asks squaring his shoulders.

“I have looked into the future and this only ends one of two ways.  First, this planet is ripped asunder and nothing survives.  Your friends in space are less fortunate.  They live years being tortured and experimented on until their organs fail and they die in agony.”  She answers.

“And the other?”  Natasha asks.

“The other is I take this vessel.  I remove the threat and I move on from this world.  But your friend will die.  I must remove the host to claim the vessel to truly have access to my full powers.”  She explains.  You start to struggle.  You manage to take control for a moment and you try to remove the ring, but she takes control before you can even get your hands together.  “Oh my most precious one, I know.  This is hard.  You always had such fight.  I admire you for it.”  She says to you.

“Listen to me, don’t you stop fighting.  Keep fighting her, honey.”  Tony says.

Clint raises his bow and just lets an arrow loose at you, aimed for your head.  Her eyes flare purple and the atoms from the arrow pass easily between the atoms that make your body and it lands in the ground behind you.

“I am not your enemy here.  Please.”  She begs.  “I have been molding her to fit me her whole life.  I used to travel the universe creating.  Creating words and life.  Then one day a being of death trapped me in a ring.  She wanted me dead, but my kind are eternal, so captivity was the only answer.  My intention was to let her live it.  When death came for her and her light extinguished I was to take the vessel then.  Not before.  But if these creatures who are so set on destruction win, and they will, it won’t just be her life, it will be everyone on this planet.  And everyone on the next.  And the next and the next.  Until there is nothing left.”

As she speaks you see the future as she does and you realize what’s at stake here.  You start to relax and give in to her.  Letting her snuff you out.  “No, my sweet.  Not yet.  They need to choose too.  They have to understand.”  She says.

“Don’t you give in.  Don’t you do it.  Fight her.”  Tony barks at you.

“Tony, I think you need to be reasonable here.  We all love her…”  Steve says, calmly.

“No, that’s not how we do things.  We don’t just trade one of us out.  That’s not the answer.”  Tony snarls.

“You would choose that you all die?  That is the choice you make.  No one, for a brief moment more with her?”  She asks, floating up in the air and hovering in front of Tony.

“There’s got to be another way.  We’re heroes.  There’s always another way.”  Tony says, almost pleading with her.  The desperation drips from his voice.

A loud explosion rattles the ground and she looks up.  “We’re running out of time.  The decision needs to be made.”  She says.

“Why can’t you just borrow her body?  Get rid of them and give her back.  Return to the original plan?”  Steve asks.

She shakes your head.  “I wish that I could.  I do, truly.  But I can only access a small percentage of my power while she still shares the vessel.”

“Stop calling her a vessel!”  Tony shouts.  “She is a person.  She is better than you.  Better than all of us.”

“I know that.  She is.  But she is not nearly as strong.  If she were I would let her take care of it.”  She explains.

You push the thought to her to let you speak to him.  Just give you enough control to say goodbye.  She nods.  “She wishes to speak to you.”  She says and touches back down to Earth.  You feel the control return to you, but her essence is still there pressing on you.

“Tony.”  You say softly.

He lands on the ground in front of you and you put your hands on his cheeks.  “Please don’t do this.  What will I do without you?”  He pleads.

“You’ll go on.  Like you always do.  That’s what you do, Tony.  You lose people and you go on.”  You say, your thumbs stroking his cheeks.

The iron suit opens and he collapses out of it into your waiting arms.  You hold him stroking his hair, looking at the others as they refuse to meet your eyes.  “I love you, Tony.  I want a life with you.  The whole thing.  Marriage, children.  Grandchildren.  All of it.  But it wasn’t meant for us.  This is the end of the road for me.  But you have to keep going.”

“I can’t.  I can’t.”  He says, desperately.  “Please.  I love you.”  It’s the first time you’ve heard the words from him and they’re like a dagger to the heart.

“I love you too.  Please always remember that.  I do.  I have to go now.  It will be okay.  You will be okay.”  You say and give yourself to her.

She takes control again and presses a kiss to Tony’s brow.  He crumples to the ground staring up at you. “This is a terrible choice, but it is the right one.  She still is here if you wish to say one last thing before she is gone.”

“She knows we love her, doesn’t she?”  Clint says, tears running down his cheeks.

“Yes, she knows.  She loves you all too.”  She answers.   “Goodbye, my love.  You have made a great sacrifice today.”  She says to you.

You feel pressure on you, then warmth, then nothing.  She takes your form and floats up into the sky, plasma courses from her body, making the air crackle and boom.  She looks out and sees everything and starts to rearrange it.  The damage the aliens have caused is undone, she brings your friends back to Earth and they stand looking up not sure what just happened.  Finally holding her arms out and her hands up a beam of light pours from her and the crafts and everything on them ceases to be.  They are torn apart atom from atom and those atoms are returned to the universe.

She lands down amongst the group.  Most of them are confused.  Unaware of what has happened.  The rest are crying when normally this would be a celebration.  Another threat driven back.

She approaches Natasha.  “I shall go.  Having me here will only cause you pain, but I wanted you to have the gift of choice.”  She says putting her hand on Natasha’s stomach.  Her eyes glow as she heals the damage to Natasha’s womb that was caused in the Red Room.

Natasha stares at her for a minute and wipes her eyes.  “Thank you.”  She whispers.

“There is one last thing.  I don’t know if you are aware, but she is with child.”  She says.

Tony looks up, terrified.  “No.  No… no, no, no.”

“You do not wish to keep it?”  She asks.

“I - I do.  I want it.”  Tony says.

She approaches Tony and strokes his hair.  “I can return with the child when it is born.  Or if you have a host who wishes to bear the child I can transfer it.”

Tony looks around wildly.  Not sure what the answer he has is.  Not wanting to miss out on the pregnancy but not knowing what other choice he has.

“I’ll do it,”  Natasha says.  “I’ll carry it.”

She returns to Natasha’s side, touches her own stomach and touches Natasha’s.  “So be it.”  She says as they both glow.   As the light fades, she looks at the group.  “I wish you well Avengers.  Know she loved you so I do love you.  If you need me, just call to Gaia like you always have.”

And she’s gone.  Her form shimmering and disappearing.  Tony breaks down into tears and his friends gather around, ready to who help him so he doesn’t have to carry the weight of the loss alone.


End file.
